


The Princess and the Other Princess

by SpringZephyr



Series: The Snow Princess and Her Friends [1]
Category: Inazuma Eleven, Inazuma Eleven: Ares no Tenbin
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Multi, ina11bigbang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27111331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpringZephyr/pseuds/SpringZephyr
Summary: Nae forces the soccer club into hosting a fundraiser, Someoka into a dress, and Atsuya into considering his feelings. Shirou supports it all.
Relationships: Fubuki Atsuya/Shiratoya Nae, Fubuki Shirou/Someoka Ryuugo
Series: The Snow Princess and Her Friends [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980301
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. Shirou Probably Could've Helped, but it was Too Much Effort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crossdressing is a main theme in this story, because it's fun, and this fic is borderline crack based on the fact that *I think it's fun*. But after I started writing it, I began to worry that maybe people would interpret this story as more than it's meant to be. Especially because I added some SomeFubu for a friend, and gay manga has a lot of antiquated tropes about crossdressing and feminine vs masculine.
> 
> My political views on the subject are that it's a completely separate entity from the LGBT+ community and that there is no direct correlation between gender identity or sexual orientation and people dressing up in certain clothes. I just... feel like I have to say this, for some reason.
> 
> So basically: Don't read too much into this story. This fic is only meant for humor. Also don't be a Nae and naively force people to wear clothes that they don't want to.

"Everyone." Nae strode into the club room and slammed her open palms on the table. She almost knocked a couple of water bottles to the floor, and left the door open behind her. Cold air and snow followed her into the room. "We need to talk about a fundraiser."

  
  


"No, we don't," Atsuya replied.

  
  


He didn't look up from what he was doing, wiping a week's worth of mud and the salt Hakuren used to melt the snow on their fields off his cleats. The school hired plow trucks to maintain most of their school grounds, but that didn't do much for the sheets of ice left behind on the ground after a particularly wet or cold snowfall. But his mom hated when he tracked mud and salt into the house, and Shirou had just gotten a new game for his birthday that Atsuya really wanted to play, so the less time spent cleaning the floors after their mother came home from work, the better.

They weren't even scheduled to have practice today. He could've been at home by now, sitting on his couch and playing that remake of Pro Snowboarder that just came out...

And in his opinion, they had a manager and bench warmers for this kind of thing. Time spent performing maintenance was time he was wasting when he could have been on the pitch, practicing instead. Or playing video games, as the case may be.

  
  


He applied the same line of thought to recruiting new members, discussing friendly matches, and fundraisers. The strategic meetings, where they mostly watched footage of other teams playing and discussed possible counter strategies, were a little better, but Atsuya wouldn't have complained if they started skipping those either. Let his skills on the field determine how the match would go. Ability was the real deciding factor of most matches anyway. Frankly, if his older brother weren't the captain, Atsuya would've spent far less time cooped up inside the dimly lit room.

  
  


But fundraising?

“What do we need a fundraiser for anyway?” Atsuya challenged.

  
  


Behind him, he could sense some of the other players tensing up while he leaned back in his seat. Yukino in particular was afraid of saying “no” to Nae, ever since that time she tried to cure his runny nose with a “super juice” made from blended avocados, ginger, turmeric, and turkey.

  
  


Which was stupid.

  
  


Nae had only been trying to help, and it was Yukino's own fault if he hadn't been able to stop her from forcing him to drink it.

  
  


Granted, Atsuya had agreed to help hold him down...

  
  


"Huh? Whaddya mean?"

  
  


Even their snow princess, in spite of her usual carelessness, should've been able to understand that.

  
  


"You really don't get it?” Atsuya scoffed. "Your dad is _rich_ . He’s the new coach _and_ our sponsor. We don't have to worry about anything this year."

  
  
  
  


The room went silent, apart from a particularly loud sniffle, courtesy of Yukino. Nae pouted at him with her arms crossed in front of her chest, and Atsuya returned the look with an arrogant smirk that said he knew he was right. A few seconds passed before somebody muttered, “They're at it again...”

  
  


“Too bad Shirou isn't here to stop them.”

  
  
  


“Or Someoka.”

  
  


At that exact moment, Shirou spoke up, "Not the case, brother of mine."

“You heard what I said?” Atsuya asked.

  
  


With Shirou and Someoka now present, the entire team was collected in one place. Unlike Nae, Shirou and Someoka remembered to shut the door. Warmth did not immediately return to the room – the way Shirou smiled at him in return was too cold for that.

“I didn't,” Shirou replied cheerfully, but not cheerfully enough to have Atsuya fooled. “But you're my little brother and I know you, which means I know you were complaining about something.”

“Hey!”

At his side, Someoka grumbled something like “did you really have to antagonize him this time”. Atsuya wasn't really sure. His indignation was currently divided between his older brother and Nae, who was sticking her tongue out at him, and there wasn't much of Atsuya's attention span left to care either way about Someoka's mediocre attempts at defending him.

While Atsuya was busy competing with Nae for Hakuren's title of #1 Pouter, Sorano spoke up, “What kind of fundraiser?”

  
  


“I never thought I'd say this,” Hyoujou added, “but Atsuya had a point. Do we really need a fundraiser this year?”

  
  


Given how their team was, to put it bluntly, located in the middle of nowhere, there were only two things keeping their club alive: the fact that the Fubuki brothers were somewhat well-known throughout Japan, and the fact that they worked their butts off every year to secure funds to pay for the long bus rides and field maintenance. But that was before Nae and her super rich, business owning father had joined the team. To be honest, Atsuya hadn't been the only member of Hakuren hoping to slack off this year.

Shirou answered both of their questions without hesitation, starting with Hyoujou's. “The Princess thought it would be fun to raise money the old-fashioned way,” he explained.

“And the coach thought it was a good idea,” Someoka added.

Coach Shiratoya was flipping through one of his strategy books, conveniently ignoring the glare Atsuya shot in his direction.

“As for the nature of the fundraiser – ”

“Tch. Fine. So what, we have to vote on whether to have a bake sale or a car wash?”

  
  


Because Atsuya hated baking, but washing cars in temperatures cold enough to freeze water as soon as it touched the ground didn’t sound fun either.

“ – it’s already been decided,” Shirou finished.

“And let me guess,” Atsuya cut him off again, noting the way Nae began to squirm with excitement as her big 'announcement' grew closer, “the Snow Princess here is the one who picked it out?”

“It's not a car wash or a bake sale!” Nae replied, a little too happily. “I already decided – we’re going to have a princess and prince cafe!”

  
  


There were a lot of things Atsuya wanted to say all at once.

  
  


For some reason, he tried to say all of them simultaneously. "What is a maid cafe even thinking _how_?" he blurted.

  
  


“A-Atsuya!”

  
  
  


“Use your words,” Someoka instructed unhelpfully, which was probably his idea of sarcasm.

  
  
  


“ _No._ ”

  
  


Atsuya muttered that single word through grit teeth, trying to forget the bad taste of word vomit in his mouth. There had been numerous occasions where he'd not been the most graceful with his word choice, but this was bad, even according to the standards set by his normal way of speaking.

  
  


It only happened when Nae was around.

She made his brain sick or something, or maybe Shirou had lied about stupidity not being contagious, because every so often Nae proposed a dumb idea and Shirou willingly found himself going along with it. But there were also times that even he, normally a self-proclaimed agent of chaos, had to put his foot down.

Like right now.

“Hosting a cafe sounds like something that stupid otaku team from Kanto would decide to do,” Atsuya justified his decision out loud. He couldn't bring himself to admit that a stupid _princess and prince_ cafe still sounded like a better idea than a car wash in early January.

  
  


“For simplicity's sake,” Shirou blatantly ignored him, “let's call it a 'fairy tale cafe'.”

  
  


Nae – and a couple of the others, but to be fair, Atsuya really only cared about Nae at the moment – made little chirps of approval.

"I think it sounds kind of fun," Juka said.

  
  


"Kind of" was apparently not good enough for Nae. "It will be the event of the year!" She promised.

  
  


While Nae and a couple of the others started going into the details, Atsuya stared at his brother until Shirou's gaze met his own. The time it took, just a couple of seconds, gave Atsuya enough space to decide what he was going to complain about first.

“Bro, come on!” Atsuya whined. “We have to vote on this!”

  
  


“Well…” Shirou looked at Nae, who stopped high-fiving Juka, and returned his look. “It is only fair. Shall we leave it to a vote?”

  
  


"I don't see why not," she agreed.

Relieved, Atsuya let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Juka and Hyoujou might've been on board with the idea, but that didn't mean everyone else was. Nae was, after all, completely insane. Nobody else tried to force their entire team into a rabbit costume over a stupid commercial.

  
  


(Except it hadn't been the _entire_ team, but she had tried convincing Atsuya to join her. And then she'd jumped on his back and forced him to wear the bunny costume – _on two occasions._ The costume had actually been very comfortable, but he was still grateful that Nae's dad had done him a favor and “accidentally” cut that footage out of their sponsorship.)

  
  
  
  


In fact, Atsuya was willing to bet that there wasn't a single team in the world with a player crazier than Nae. If they somehow did, Atsuya's heart went out to them. Genuinely. There were days he thought just being around Nae would be enough to make his stop working.

  
  


“Let's start with those in favor,” Shirou said.

  
  


Juka, Hyoujou, and Nae were obviously voting yes. 'Big deal,' Atsuya thought, 'because the others were definitely going to be a “no”.' Then he caught sight of Yukino, trembling slightly as he raised his hand. Atsuya almost snapped at him before he remembered, oh right, the thing about the medicine – Yukino is afraid of Nae now.

  
  


His confidence continued to wane as he glanced around the room, watching Konko and Iya raise their hands. Fine, that was still only six people. Plus the coach and the manager. Not even half of the team, if they included the bench warmers, and –

  
  


“Someoka?!” Atsuya shouted.

  
  


He'd never felt so betrayed in his life. Except for maybe that time Nae had promised to bring him a bento box and then forgot her promise and _ate it_ as a snack before lunch. Or last week, when Shirou had used up all the hot water before Atsuya got his turn in the shower. But seriously, who would've imagined that a cool and imposing guy like Someoka would be open to running a cafe?

  
  


At least Shirou wasn't raising his hand.

  
  


"I-I see what's going on here," Atsuya muttered, more to himself than anything. "Because it was Nae's idea, everyone is afraid to…"

  
  


"I want to see what Atsuya looks dressed as a princess," Hyoujou said.

“Me too,” said Kitami.

He was a kind of weird guy. Getting into fights with Hyoujou was normal, since their personalities were like water and oil, but Kitami only came to school once a year to play soccer. And he always hid the lower half of his face behind a scarf. Kitami was also quiet, and Atsuya had never had a reason to talk to him before. Which meant it was difficult to tell when he was being serious.

  
  


"I won't be the one wearing a dress!" Atsuya snapped back to his usual self. "Someoka?"

  
  


Someoka shrugged, but didn't lower his hand. "It doesn't sound like a bad idea," he said. "The club could use extra funds."

“But Nae's dad...!”

  
  


“Isn't a valid excuse for everyone to neglect their duties to this club,” Someoka replied firmly. “Your dedication to your club doesn't stop once you're off the field, Atsuya.”

He vaguely recalled something he'd overheard Someoka telling Shirou once, about how having a healthy rivalry with Nae was going to be good for his development. But there was no way Someoka could've anticipated a situation like this would come up when he'd said that.

  
  


"Glad you think so!" Nae shouted, literally jumping in front of Someoka's face. "We need a cool and tough looking princess, like you, for variety!"

  
  


Someoka dropped his “cool and tough” look immediately, joining Atsuya in screaming "What?!" at exactly the same time.

  
  


To his credit, Someoka lowered his hand after that.

  
  


Nae nodded to herself, her selective hearing really making itself known. "Yes, yes…" she nodded at her own genius, eyes closed in concentration. "One of those dresses from the theater club we were looking at should fit Someoka nicely."

  
  


"Bro, do something!"

  
  


"Shirou, _please_."

  
  
Smiling serenely, Shirou looked at Atsuya first and then Someoka. There was a levity in his gaze that told the two of them everything they needed to know, without Shirou having to say it. _Better one of you than me_ and _sorry, there was nothing I could do_.


	2. Someoka's Pastel Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nae has some very specific ideas on how the cafe should be run, meaning Someoka needs to become a pretty princess.

Atsuya had never seen Someoka look so distressed before. Watching Nae back him into a corner with just a mass of blue fabric and some fake jewelry on top in her bare hands was scarier, and strangely more fascinating, than any horror movie Atsuya had ever seen.

  
  


“Nae, _please_ ," he begged. "We have three girls in our club.”

  
  


They were having a “dress rehearsal”, but since Nae wanted to be involved with every aspect of the cafe, and someone needed to make sure Someoka wore his actual, literal dress, Nae had invited herself into the boys’ dressing room as an overseer. Without warning any of them.

  
  


And for the record, their “dressing room” was just Atsuya's homeroom class that Nae had somehow gotten permission to use after school. He'd never be able to concentrate during class again.

  
  


Only one day had passed since the fairy tale cafe had been announced, and Nae was pushing them forward with all the subtlety of a human forklift.

  
  


"There are more boys in the club,” Nae pointed out flawlessly, “so some of you need to be princesses too!"

  
  


Atsuya rearranged his velvet cloak around his shoulders for a second or third time. He'd screamed when Nae had arrived announced in their dressing room. Someoka had screamed. Shirou had looked quietly resigned to the fact, but Atsuya suspected he had been screaming on the inside.

  
  


On the bright side, he and Shirou had already finished changing by the time Nae had barged in. And his costume was surprisingly simple – the two main components were the matching capes and crowns he and his brother wore. Apparently, the theater club hadn't had much in the way of princely costumes.

  
  


To Someoka’s dismay, Nae had once again forgotten to close the door behind her. But Atsuya had kind of expected that. And it was Shirou who’d quietly, almost too quietly, trailed behind Nae to fix her unintentional little mistakes, as usual. Unlike Atsuya, he was acting polite, pretending not to notice Someoka's cries and the way Nae somehow failed to notice the increasing amounts of desperation in his voice.

  
  


“Then have fewer princesses!” Someoka replied.

  
  


“I’d like to have three, but I can’t make Konko a princess, because she said she wanted to work in the kitchen!”

  
  


“Make her be a princess anyway!”

  
  


Konko was smart. Smarter than Atsuya had given her credit for, at least.

  
  


Unlike Atsuya, she hadn't pestered her parents or a convenient older brother to do her share of the baking every time Hakuren had hosted a bake sale for their fundraiser instead. If Atsuya knew how to cook, he wouldn't be wearing this cape.

  
  


“Do you know how many other people can bake a perfect lemon chiffon cake?!” Nae yelled back. Her voice was sharp and high pitched from exertion from struggling with Someoka. “We need Konko in the kitchen! A Fairy Tale Cafe is no good if the menu isn’t magical enough to match!”

  
  


“I… will… learn… how!”

  
  


Despite all of Someoka’s valiant struggles, he was obviously going to lose this fight. Nae climbed onto one of his arms like a monkey, using all of her body weight to pull it back down to his side. Then she somehow managed to – despite being half of Someoka's size – keep it there long enough to steal his uniform jacket and wrangle him into a pale blue dress with long sleeves.

  
  


Pretty impressive, if Atsuya were being honest. It'd be totally unfair if Nae were somehow both the fastest and the strongest player on their team.

  
  


And Someoka was still wearing pants underneath the dress. At least Nae wasn’t that crazy.

  
  


Except she definitely was!

  
  


Dressing Someoka like a princess was the type of idea only a crazy person would come up with. At least the reasoning behind Atsuya and Shirou being princes made sense. Atsuya may not have been happy about it, but Shirou was the “Prince of the Snow Fields”, and Atsuya was his younger brother.

  
  


While Nae smoothed out his sleeves and skirts, Atsuya looked away just long enough to gauge Shirou's reaction. His brother was still pretending not to notice, but not doing a very job.

  
  


“I know, I know,” Atsuya said conversationally. “I admire Nae's tenacity also, but she's still weird.”

He frowned when he didn't get a response. It wasn't like Shirou to ignore him.

  
  


His brother was still staring blankly at the wall behind Someoka. Pretending not to notice _anything_ , apparently.

  
  


Atsuya crossed his arms and huffed. “Fine.”

  
  


Shirou got kind of weird too, when Someoka was around sometimes. Not, like, Nae levels of weird, and not potentially contagious either, but still weird. And if his older brother wasn't going to talk to him, the only interesting thing left to do was watch Nae torture the reinforcement member.

  
  


Nae completed their outfits by handing Someoka a small, golden tiara topped with ornamental snowflakes. They were like thinner, more delicate versions of the mini crowns he and Shirou had been given, and Nae nearly knocked her own tiara off as she wiped a hand across her forehead while panting. Someoka was breathing just as heavily. He looked and sounded thoroughly defeated as he accepted the tiara from Nae, and plopped it on top of his own head.

  
  


They both spent a few moments recovering.

Surprisingly, Someoka almost looked a little cool, with the way the too tight sleeves clung to his arms, showing off every muscle in his biceps. Apparently, he had some awesome biceps. The pale blue dress also made an interesting contrast with Someoka's short, pink hair, like cotton candy. But Atsuya still couldn't see him as a princess.

  
  


“Just need to tie your sash," Nae said finally, "and the fitting is done.”

  
  


Realizing this was probably his last opportunity to escape before Nae inevitably turned her attention on him and his brother, Atsuya bolted in the direction of the door.

  
  


He was stopped dead in his tracks by Shirou, the unexpected traitor, grabbing the back of his cape. When he turned around to scold his brother for stopping him, he caught sight of something he hadn’t expected to see – Shirou's blank look from earlier had transformed.

  
  


“Is it weird that it looks so natural on him?” Shirou muttered, dumbstruck.

  
  


Atsuya decided to follow their parents’ advice and give an honest reply. “Yes.”

  
  


“Oh.”

  
  


“And you’re weird for saying that.”

  
  


"That's fine, I'm fine with being weird." He spoke the words so quickly, some of them blended together. That wasn't normal for Shirou either, so Atsuya guessed it was a good thing he was okay with being weird now.

He also didn't give himself too much time to think about that.

  
  


“Bro, we need to escape!”

  
  


“Do we?” Shirou's voice sounded thick, the way it sometimes did early in the morning when Dad sent Atsuya to get him out of bed, but he wasn't fully awake yet.

  
  


“Are you crazy?!”

That was a stupid question. Atsuya was starting to think everyone around him was crazy – the coach, Hyoujou, and now Someoka. It only made sense that his brother would go crazy too.

  
  


“Let go of my costume?” Atsuya mumbled. Someoka couldn't distract Nae forever, and Shirou had an iron grip on the fabric. When prying Shirou's fingers off didn't work, Atsuya tried desperately to undo the clasp around his neck. The stupid thing was stuck. “I'll run away alone!”

  
  


“I think it looks nice,” Nae said, obviously proud of herself. “Want me to get a mirror so you can see?”

  
  


'Please,' Atsuya thought.

  
  


He was running out of time.

  
  


“It's not that it looks _bad_ ...” Someoka made an uncharacteristically distressed noise, a mix between a squeak and something Atsuya couldn't quite name. “But, um. I've been thinking. Doesn't our cafe need a _knight_?”

  
  


Nae paused, taking his suggestion into consideration.

  
  


And while she did, Shirou let go of his cape, allowing Atsuya to begin tiptoeing toward the door.

  
  


“It's not that it looks _bad_ ...” Someoka made an uncharacteristically distressed noise, a mix between a squeak and something Atsuya couldn't quite name. “But, um. I've been thinking. Doesn't our cafe need a _knight_?”

  
  


Nae paused, taking his suggestion into consideration.

  
  


And while she did, Shirou let go of his cape, allowing Atsuya to begin tiptoeing toward the door.

  
  


“I'll get back to you on that,” she said, and turned her attention toward Atsuya. It took exactly two nanoseconds for Nae to go from looking proud of herself and fawning over Someoka to cornering Atsuya. “Atsuuuyaaa!”

  
  


“Oh, sh--”

  
  


Nae replaced his brother by trapping him with a death grip of a hug. Really. Maybe Nae should have been nicknamed the Bear Killer instead, if she was hiding that much strength inside her tiny frame. Atsuya held up his hands to stop her from squishing their faces together.

  
  


Without free use of his hands, it was – somehow – insanely difficult to pry her off of him.

  
  


“You're already... the fastest student in our school,” Atsuya grumbled between breaths. At some point, he managed to put just enough space between them that he could breathe again. “It'll be completely unfair if you turn out to be the strongest too!”

  
  


“You actually wore it!”

  
  


“Only because you and big bro forced me!”

  
  


Nae loosened her grip enough to pull away just far enough that her foam green eyes and tiny frown occupied most of his vision. “You don't like it?” she asked, sounding genuinely confused. “I think it looks cute.”

  
  


Maybe for a moment, Atsuya stopped breathing. It was like Nae was squishing the air out of his lungs again, except this time it was with words. “I. Am. Not. Cute,” Atsuya grumbled.

  
  


His heart did some kind of backflip, like when he was on his snowboard and going over a big hill, except this wasn't nearly as exciting. In fact, his stomach felt like it was traveling towards his feet.

  
  


It happened every time Nae complimented him now.

  
  


No, he didn't understand it either. He didn't _want_ to understand it. He was perfectly fine with their friendship as it was, without adding any weird feelings to it.

  
  


But there was something else that he kind of did. Out of the corner of his eye, Atsuya a glimpse of Shirou pattering over to the other side of the room. Of his brother gently lifting one of Someoka's, and cupping it with both of his.

  
  


" _My Princess._ "

  
  


It took only a split second for Someoka to smack him over the head.

  
  


While Shirou stumbled out of his strange trance, Atsuya noted how, during that split second, Someoka's face managed to pale and redden in quick succession.

  
  


Shock battled with the urge to push Nae away from him and won; every muscle in his back and shoulders went slack. It didn’t matter. Nae reacted before Atsuya fully registered what had just happened.

  
  


“Someoka Ryuugo!”

  
  


The flush on Someoka’s face wasn’t an _angry_ flush. Atsuya could tell, from the way he drew his shoulders up, like a turtle retreating into its shell. His eyebrows folded together. He was looking steadfastly at the floor, ignoring how all of their eyes were on him, even as Nae stepped right under his nose and poked a finger into his chest.

  
  
  
  


He was also remarkably composed, all things considered. If it had been Atsuya in that situation, he would've embarrassed himself almost as badly as when Nae had first announced her cafe idea. The strangest part was, Atsuya wasn't normally that bad with words – it was only when Nae was around that his stomach swirled and his ability to speak started to rival that of a five year old's.

  
  


"Nae." Someoka's voice was like gravel. "I really don't think this is going to work."

  
  


The blind enthusiasm eased out of Nae's expression. In spite of popular belief, she was capable of being reasonable. Sometimes. "Why not?"

  
  


"This," Someoka replied, picking at the too tight sleeve of his dress, "is not going to work. It doesn't suit me at all."

  
  


“And I,” Atsuya was already removing his cape and crown, and the clasp was coming apart a lot easier now that he wasn't panicking to undo it, “do not want to be a prince.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter in which I tried very hard to make the shipping tags not a complete lie. Since Ares Shirou has more self-confidence than the OG Shirou does, I thought it would be funny if Ares! Shirou were the type of person who goes from smart to having one brain cell over his crush.


	3. Atsuya is the Only Person Who Likes Nae's Cooking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nae is at least semi-aware that she's a bad chef, which is why whenever something turns out particularly bad, she pretends she ate it herself.

Normally, the Fubuki brothers would receive a ride home after school from one of their parents. When both of their parents were working, as was the case today, Mabuka's mother sometimes stepped in - even though Mabuka's family lived clear across the other side of town, and having to drive from one end to the other meant everyone in Mabuka's family ate dinner late.

"Couldn't let you children go walking around in this weather," she always said. She had not been born a native in Hokkaido, and with that in mind, the boys kind of tiptoed around the parking lot just in case. Atsuya wasn't in the mood to play Pro Snowboarder today anyway.

Really. People who weren't used to the snowy climate in Hokkaido made such a big deal about it, but it was possible to walk almost anywhere as long as you had a good coat and were careful about any potential icy spots.

Until the brothers could look behind them and only barely see their school in the background, they didn't have much to talk about. Part of that was, of course, thanks to Mabuka's mom. But the other part was just because Atsuya didn't know where to start anyway.

He was less adept at handling silence than Shirou.

"How come nobody else has to dress up?" Atsuya asked finally, pushing his hands further into his uniform pockets. It wasn't the question he wanted to hear answered, but at least he could build up from that.

Shirou, like the respectable and responsible captain he was, was able to give him a complete list of everyone's roles without pausing. About half of their club had gotten out of doing any actual work (in Atsuya's opinion) just by offering to show up early and stay late, to set up the cafe and clean everything later. Another person had the sole responsibility of greeting people and inviting them into the cafe. There were two other waiters, Juka and Hakoda, who would also be dressing up as a princess and a prince, respectively. Since Hakoda had had a dentist appointment today, Nae hadn't forced him to show up to the boys' costume rehearsal – apparently, he was even _upset_ about that.

More proof that Nae was causing the entire team to go crazy.

Konko was baking, obviously. Sorano was also in the kitchen, but Atsuya drew a mental line when he heard…

"She's letting Oshiya touch food?" Atsuya groaned.

Nothing wrong with that guy, except he'd brought cupcakes to school for his birthday last year, and they'd all tasted like shrimp and oyster. That guy was obsessed with seafood, for whatever reason.

"We might as well give up on whatever dream Nae has of princes and princesses and start learning the lyrics to 'Under the Sea' instead."

"The Little Mermaid was a princess," Shirou said.

"Only in the movies. She dies and becomes sea foam in the original story."

For a while afterwards, Atsuya did nothing but wonder how everyone else managed to get easier jobs when Shirou told him Yukino was in charge of decorating.

"So…" Atsuya had been hoping to branch into this topic naturally at some point, but since that hadn't happened, he decided the next best solution was to say it outright. "What was going on between you and Someoka earlier?"

"Was there something?"

Shirou had the kind of amused look in his eye that always riled up Atsuya, because it meant his brother knew _exactly_ what he was talking about and was going to make Atsuya say it anyway. "Of course there was!" As usual, it worked 100%. "Did you think I wouldn't notice?!"

"What did you notice?"

"You… Agh, why do you have to make everything difficult? You were being weird, that's all!"

"Oh," Shirou said. That was the most underwhelming reaction he could've possibly offered. But that was okay, because as soon as he spoke his next words, Atsuya reacted enough for both of them, "You mean like how you've been weird around Nae?"

"That's not..."

"It's subtle, but it's there. I can see it. You are my little brother, after all."

"She's the one who's weird," Atsuya insisted. "Not me."

A few minutes, in which nothing could be heard but the crunch of snow beneath their shoes, passed between them. Shirou turned his gaze toward the sky, where the clouds were the same kind of dense, fluffy gray they were nearly every day. The crossing light told them to stop walking, but there were no cars coming from either direction, so Atsuya tried to take a step forward anyway. Shirou held him back before he could.

"When I'm around Someoka..." Shirou said, with a similar, far away look as the one he'd displayed earlier. The look he'd given Atsuya and Someoka after seeing Someoka wearing that dress. "It's hard to explain, but I feel happy? And warm inside. Even when it's cold, there's something about his presence that's like sitting in front of the space heater at home."

"So?"

"You don't feel the same way around Nae?"

"When I'm around Nae..." Atsuya cut himself off, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "I don't feel warm, I feel kind of sick?"

"Ah, then why does your face always turn red?"

"It doesn't always! And that's from the fever, obviously!"

"So being around Nae causes you to get sick with a fever?" Shirou asked teasingly.

"Yes," Atsuya grumbled, "except it's only when she's around, and..." Realizing he was quickly proving Shirou's point for him, he tried half-heartedly to change the subject. "It doesn't matter anyway. I bet Nae only likes, I dunno, fluffy rabbits and stuff?"

The crossing light changed colors, but for some reason, the brothers still didn't move.

"Didn't she convince you to dress up as a rabbit one time?" Shirou asked finally.

"I was not convinced," Atsuya replied, scowling, "I was forced. And you took pictures and sent them to the entire team!"

"Well, you were being rather annoying that day–"

" _Bro!_ "

"Remember that day Nae offered to make you a homemade lunch?"

"How do you even know that?" Atsuya asked.

"She didn't eat it. She burnt it, and she was too embarrassed to tell you she failed, and that was why she waited all the way until lunch break before telling you that she 'accidentally ate' it."

Atsuya considered that for a moment. "No, I'm pretty sure she ate it. Nae's a really big eater."

"Okay, then." Shirou was determined not to back down, even for an instant. "Didn't the two of you have a secret hideout behind the school at one point?"

"She told you about that?!"

It was just a fort they'd dug in the snow. Nae had wanted to see if a story she'd read in her Literature class, about a boy who'd gotten lost on a mountain and burrowed a hole in the snow for warmth. The hole they'd dug had lasted about a week before getting snowed over, but they'd visited it more than once. By the second day, the walls and floor of their cave had begun to ice over.

_("I think it's working!" he remembered Nae saying, nearly denting one of the fragile snow walls with her elbow in the midst of her excitement._

" _That's just because there are two people in here," Atsuya muttered. He wanted to fidget, to find a more comfortable place to sit, one that didn't draw so much attention to the way Nae kept bumping against his knee, but there wasn't enough room for that. "We should've made the walls bigger.")_

"Was I not supposed to know?"

"Uh, yes? That's the whole point of having a secret hideout? Like the one we had when I was seven."

"That was just you realizing you could squeeze behind the couch, and nobody else could find you." Shirou sighed. "Anyway, how about the time–"

"I get it." Atsuya interrupted him with a wave of his hand. The cross walk still indicated it was safe for them to cross, so he decided to grab Shirou's arm and drag him along while he was at it. "I spend a lot of time with Nae. Are you jealous?"

"Not really," Shirou said, and then reminded him, "After all, I have Someoka."

Did Someoka really return his brother's feelings? Because, if so, he and Atsuya were going to have a _long_ talk about that.

"She's my first friend," he continued, while Shirou just walked alongside him, waiting, like it wasn't awkward at all for Atsuya to be spilling his guts to him. They hardly ever talked about feelings, or any of that other mushy stuff. "I don't know how this works."

There were people who had wanted to be Atsuya's friend. A few who still tried. Mostly, everyone who'd ever tried to befriend Atsuya had taken note of his somewhat prickly personality, and wisely chosen to take their offers of friendship elsewhere. Like Hyoujou.

It wasn't because Atsuya was a bad kid.

He'd just never seen the need for friends.

And then Nae appeared out of nowhere and forced her friendship on him, and suddenly Atsuya was outside of his comfort zone, forced to acknowledge there were more people in this world than himself and his brother. Even if Atsuya did have a crush on Nae, he would never admit to it. Admitting he liked Nae would mean risking ruining everything.

"I suppose I may have doted on you a bit too much," Shirou mumbled, choosing his words carefully.

"No way! You're the best older brother."

"Then why don't you listen to your older brother's advice?" Shirou said, patting his shoulder. "I think those 'fevers' would probably go away if you stopped convincing yourself you had to fight with Nae over every little thing."

"Are you speaking from personal experience?" Atsuya couldn't pass up the chance to tease his older brother.

"Someoka is the shy one in our relationship."

It backfired, causing Atsuya to turn red at the mere thought of his brother and Someoka getting together. In that way. Like, going to the movies and playing Pro Snowboarder together and stuff. Or maybe they didn't play Snowboarder – maybe Shirou had given up on getting a turn at the game, because even though their parents had bought it for Shirou's birthday, Atsuya had stolen it from his brother's room almost immediately. _Yeah_. Shirou and Someoka had probably already moved on to another video game already.

That was a shame. If Atsuya were in a relationship, he'd definitely invite them over to play Pro Snowboarder – not that there was anyone he'd thought about being in a relationship with, of course.

"Since when are you two in a relationship?!" Atsuya shouted, getting back to the subject at hand.

"Just saying."

If Atsuya couldn't concentrate on his math homework that night, because he was too busy thinking about what would happen if he _stopped convincing himself he had to fight with Nae over every little thing_ , that was entirely Shirou's fault. To make matters worse, their little conversation had even managed to ruin video games for Atsuya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said Shirou has one brain cell around his crush, but maybe Atsuya has only one brain cell in general, because he didn't notice. Denial is funny like that.
> 
> I made a reference to Underdog Hero's story, "Warm and Fuzzy", in this chapter:
> 
> https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13094614/1/Warm-and-Fuzzy


	4. Dresses aren't that Bad Anyway

Stepping back into the classroom Nae had secured for their next round of "dress rehearsals" felt a bit like taking a walk into another dimension. Atsuya was late, roped into running errands for a teacher after class, and everyone else had changed already. He'd been promised by Nae that he wouldn't have to wear the prince costume if he really didn't want to, so that was something. But at the same time, she'd still asked him to show up to the "dressing room", and Atsuya couldn't figure out what for. Someoka was wearing an armor chest plate with a fake sword strapped to his hip. Remembering what he'd said to Nae, about wanting to be a knight instead, that made sense. And Hadoka was waltzing around the room with an invisible dance parent, watching his cape fan out with every twirl. Based on what Atsuya knew about the guy – that he was a huge romantic – that also made sense.

It was a bit terrifying, watching their normally stone-faced goalkeeper dance with a small smile on his face, but at least it made sense.

Shirou, on the other hand…

"Bro, what are you doing?!"

"Admiring Nae's handiwork," his brother replied easily.

He held a small mirror in one hand and fluffed the back of his hair with the other. Aside from his hair, there were little things about his face, like the warmth on his cheeks or the rosy hint on his lips, that made it obvious Nae had done something to him.

Other than brainwashing him, that was.

The same dress Someoka had worn yesterday fit a little better on Shirou, at least as far as the tailoring was concerned. A little loose, but it wasn't stretching at the seams. The sleeves were the right length for his arms, and he didn't look like he had to hold his breath to avoid ripping the bodice.

"My relationship with you is the only one that matters."

Someoka's mouth snapped shut.

Atsuya was so busy staring in disbelief at his brother, that he didn't notice Nae standing at the other side of the room until she spoke. "I found a dress for you too, Atsuya."

"What?"

The cape on her shoulders looked familiar. It looked like the cape he'd tried on yesterday.

"I'm not wearing a dress."

Nae crossed her arms and stared at the ceiling, thinking. "But you said you didn't want to be a prince… and I promised I wouldn't make you be a prince if you didn't want to be."

"I don't want to be a princess either. Why is my brother wearing a dress?"

He was asleep. That was the only explanation. He was asleep or in another dimension, or maybe that fluttery feeling he got whenever Nae was around was the sign of an illness after all. Shirou didn't always have to be right about everything. There was one time he'd gotten a question wrong on his English exam, Atsuya was fairly certain. (There was actually more than one time, but for some reason, Atsuya could only remember the one at that moment.) Even though English was one of his brother's strongest subjects.

"Because Shirou felt bad for Someoka and offered to trade." Nae shrugged. "I told him he had to be a prince, because he _is_ our prince, but he said something about 'keeping his work life and private life separate'."

Atsuya turned back to his brother, who pointedly avoided his gaze, focusing instead on fixing his bangs. "Okay yeah, that makes way too much sense, but why do I have to wear a dress too?"

He'd have another chat with Shirou about the parts that didn't actually make sense later.

"Well," Nae started, tapping her chin as she lightly kicked at the ground with her heel. "It makes more sense to have you be a princess along with him. I mean, who would buy a tea cup without its pair?"

"Sorry, did you just compare us to tea cups?" Atsuya asked. Nae kept going.

"Or like, if we started selling our marshmallows in _just_ white, no pink. Who would buy plain, white marshmallows?"

"Literally anyone on the planet?"

"Besides, Shirou looks like he's having fun." She said, looking over his shoulder. Atsuya didn't turn to look with her.

"Yeah well, my brother hasn't exactly been right in the head these past few days."

" _Rude_." He heard behind him.

"And that still doesn't explain why-" Atsuya didn't get the chance to finish his sentence, "why you're comparing us to teacups and marshmallows".

"You and Shirou can wear matching dresses, and it will be _so_ cute!" Nae bounced in circles around him, her cape and long ponytail bouncing energetically with her.

"And how come Someoka gets to be a knight?" Atsuya continued. "Why aren't you wearing a dress?!"

The princely look wasn't entirely convincing, but at least she looked cuter than Someoka wearing a dress. And she'd put slightly more effort into her outfit than Shirou and Atsuya had. Instead of wearing a uniform shirt underneath the cape, she'd found a frilly blouse that vaguely looked like it could've come from the Victorian era. Nae could've shown up wearing that stupid bunny costume again, however, and she somehow wouldn't have looked out of place. Atsuya wondered if that was similar to what Shirou saw in Someoka.

"It has come to my attention that there are more to fairy tales than just princesses and princes," Nae replied. "And that boys can be princesses too, or girls can be princes, or whatever they want to be!"

"There is also a certain charm," Hadoka twirled until he was standing in a spot next to Atsuya, "in having siblings that match."

"Yes," Shirou said. "That."  
  
"I think you'd look cute in a dress," Nae added, and the worst part was, if she'd just said that at the start, Atsuya would've spent less time arguing with her about it.

Atsuya flashed back to what his brother had said the other day. About how he would be much happier if he weren't convincing himself he had to fight with Nae all of the time.

"...Absolutely not! Why can't I be a knight or something, like Someoka?"

"You should at least try it on before reaching any conclusions," Hakoda said. "I bet it's very comfortable."

"Then you can wear it. I'd rather be a knight."

Unhelpfully, Someoka added, "I doubt the theater club could produce another suit of armor on such short notice anyway."

"And you're too short to fit into the suit Someoka is wearing," Shirou continued.

"All right, it's been decided!" Nae had a dangerous gleam in her eye, and Atsuya couldn't turn away fast enough. She pounced on him, the same way she had Someoka, with the dress draped over her shoulder, and immediately shoved it over his head. "Stop squirming, or the zipper's going to catch when I zip up the back!"

"That's not my fault? You're the one who thought this was a good idea, not - "

The door opened.

"Yukino wanted me to ask if you prefer tablecloths that are embroidered or…" Hyoujou froze, taking in the sight in front of him. A moment later, he smirked and said, "I knew Nae would get you to wear that dress sooner or later."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you go. That is my silly little contribution to the Inazuma Eleven Big Bang.
> 
> Post story: Atsuya either voluntarily joins his brother, or Nae finds a wizard costume and he dresses up like a wizard instead. Nae realizes she likes the endless possibilities of being able to dress up as whatever the heck she wants, and ends up dressing up like a bunch of things all at once. Think maybe a princess dress with dragon wings, the prince costume cape, a bow and arrow, etc.
> 
> Someoka surprisingly doesn't regret the day he met these crazy people.


End file.
